St. Luke’s Hospital to offer heart transplant care in Wichita

St. Luke’s Hospital of Kansas City will start seeing heart transplant patients in Wichita for the first time today .

Patients still won’t be able to receive heart transplants in Wichita, but St. Luke’s is adding pre- and post-surgery care to its Wichita clinic that currently serves kidney transplant patients.

Five cardiologists from St. Luke’s will take turns traveling to Wichita to see heart transplant patients once a month.

Right now, patients drive to Kansas City for all appointments. Depending on their condition, that amounts to significant mileage – once every two to four weeks leading up to the transplant, once a week after surgery, then every other week and eventually tapered down to once a month, once every three months and eventually once every six months.

Andrew Kao, cardiologist and head of the heart transplantation at St. Luke’s, will see patients in Wichita on opening day, which is already filled with appointments.

He said the Wichita location wouldn’t eliminate those appointments to Kansas City, but will lessen the travel for many patients who are at least six months post-transplant.

Laurel Gifford, a spokeswoman for St. Luke’s, said St. Luke’s has between 30 and 40 patients in the Wichita area who are awaiting a heart transplant, or who already received one.